Ice jam flood watch extended amid rising temperatures

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area shared this aerial photo on its Facebook page. It shows ice spanning the Delaware River at the park and was taken Jan. 14, 2018, by Phil Selleck, who is retired as chief ranger at the national park.

Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

A flood watch set to expire Thursday afternoon for the Delaware River watershed was extended through Sunday afternoon, due to rising temperatures and the continuing unpredictability of river ice, the National Weather Service said.

The watch is for Northampton and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey, but really only applies to communities along the Delaware River.

"It's a special kind of flood watch," weather service meteorologist Sarah Johnson said. "It is for an ice jam, and the only ice jam that we're aware of is on the Delaware River."

"It's pretty impossible to forecast where ice jams will develop," she added later. "We don't really know about ice jams until we have reports either from gauges or from people reporting it to us. So far this is the only ice jam we're aware of in our area."